Hey blog!
I am sorry I have neglected you, but unfortunately internet is in short supply. Also things have been crazy busy! There's tons to talk about, from the people and geography of the town, to thoughts on life in the (not so) north, to hopes and expectations for the year, to the work i do at the school. Since a lot of people seem interested, I'll take you through a day in the life, in this case last Thursday.
07:30: Wake up (whoops I'm late for my 8am meeting)
08:00: Support staff meeting: we discuss the week and any outstanding issues. I try and manage my schedule :)
08:30: northern studies class (grade 10): I try and keep students on task and motivated. Sometimes I am successful ;)
09:45: Helping out with grade 8 and 9 classrooms. Today I am proctoring a social studies test. The students are pretty good. I try and clarify questions for students and pretend that I remember something about serfs and the feudal system.
10:45: Music class. I teach two students how to tune their guitars. Next week: plan to use a digital tuner instead :) I'll also probably help out with the keys players, and maybe teach students how to find music to play on their own to get them more involved in the process (to me, being able to play guitar and keyboard for school is awesome! Sorry viola, I tried to like you for four years..)
11:55: Lunch: i go home and make a ham, cucumber and grilled onion sandwich. The ham has been around for quite a while (we bought 2kg because it was much cheaper than the alternatives, however this has required steady dedication to eating ham every day). I do not like cucumber but I force myself to eat it because it is cheap here and unusually fresh.
13:00: Life skills class. We do "brain gym" which is kind of a hybrid of yoga and qigong (or at least, it tries to ground itself in those philosophies). I fall asleep during guided meditation and am roused by the laughter of my students.
14:15: Grade 11 Chemistry. While our chem teacher is on 2 week bereavement leave, I have been helping a substitute teacher with the material. Mostly this consists of my teaching some lectures and prepping the sub after hours. Of course, It has been a while since I myself touched this material, so I had to relearn grade 10 and grade 11 chem. That was what I did last weekend. Chem makes way more sense now than in high school :) Apparently I am not a terrible teacher? Between the sub and myself, we make one complete teaching unit. Also bonus points for sneaking the XKCD comic on the pauli sexclusion principle into my lecture.
15:30: Tutoring a student in grade 10 math. This was one of the most inspiring parts of my day.
16:30: Frisbee with another student. it is very windy but I am now an expert at getting to disc to float right in front of someone (no more split lips!).
17:30: HOME! I eat some stuff or something. I think it's chili that i cooked 5 days ago. i am finishing it and am sad because i'll have to cook tomorrow :(. Jamie and I watch TV on our antenna (we get NBC, CBC, APTN and Global). Apparently NWT (or at least our TV) was excluded form the recent switch to digital antenna. NWT is excluded from a lot of things it seems (including Canadian calling plans!)
18:30: Bernice calls !!!
19:00: Documentary week at the library (since it is the year of the forest) I arrive late and miss the awesome book giveaways (awww, I wanted the cookbook). We watch a documentary about tigers in Russia (still can't get used to seeing tigers surronded in snow) and gorillas in the Congo (I've never seen a forest ranger carry an RPG before!!!)
21:00: Back home. The office is on. I eat cereal (old habits don't go away, even in the face of $7 for 4L of milk and $8 for most cereals).
22:30: Head over to the high rise to meet up with other volunteers and a local photographer to take in the aurora. We get in his car and I can't help but notice the damage to the door checker. Along with examining the ventilation systems in just about every room I occupy, noticing door checkers seems to be a work habit that will never go away. We drive 20 minutes out of town. It is very dark but the stars are brilliant. No aurora tonight but we take pictures of the milky way and some of Jupiter's moons (I cannot afford that scale of camera lens). I think mournfully of the Panasonic learning camera I have not brought on the trip out of shame. It seems everyone here has at least proper SLR. Still, I can practice using manual settings on my camera, and then maybe one day i'll be ready for a big-boy camera! Also, the photographer has the IPhone constellation app and I am forced to concede it's usefulness. We make wolf howls but there is no response. I do not howl, I am not confident in my abilities. I will leave that to the experts.
00:30: Back home. I sleep now.
Well, that's a (sort of) ordinary day. Anyway, I'm off to cook pizza and maybe play a game of pickup ulti tonight! I hope everyone is having a good time and all is well! I'll try and make more posts, there's tons to talk about.
P.S. The fish here is awesome. Taken straight out of Great Slave it's so fresh and flavourful. The smoked whitefish is arguably the best fish I hve ever had, thanks Karen!
Cheers,
Galen
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